Kejriwal, Rahul, Prabhu in war of words over child's death

December 14, 2015

New Delhi, Dec 14: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were locked in a war of words on Monday over the razing of hutments here and the death of a child of one of the hundreds left homeless in the winter chill.delhi demolition-row759

The grieving father of the six-month-old baby insisted that the girl died in the panic caused by the imminent demolition of hutments at Shakur Basti in west Delhi on Saturday where they lived. The autopsy report said the death occurred due to head and chest injuries besides shock.

Prabhu told the Lok Sabha this was untrue and that the child died before the railways started pulling down the hutments they said were built illegally on railway land to make way for new rail lines.

Since the demolition, the hutment dwellers are living in the open, at the site, under canvas tents. Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said it was determined to provide food and shelter to the poor.

On Monday, accompanied by Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, Rahul Gandhi met the displaced men, women and children and vowed to fight for their rights.

Gandhi said: "We will try to help you... We will fight for you... We will raise the issue in parliament."

Gandhi's office tweeted that both the central and Delhi governments were to blame for the Saturday demolition. "Now they are busy blaming each other.

"Instead, they should provide help to the people who have been displaced and rehabilitate them."

Kejriwal promptly hit back, saying Gandhi was a "kid" who did not know that the railways which carried out the razing was controlled by the central, not Delhi, government.

Prabhu promised to invite Kejriwal to discuss how people left homeless due to the demolition could be rehabilitated and how public land could be put to use.

He said the demolition was carried out after sending repeated notices to people at Shakur Basti to vacate the land.

Calling the hutments an encroachment, Prabhu said they had become an impediment for building a new passenger terminal and were also a safety hazard.

In the Lok Sabha, AAP's Bhagwant Mann said the razing was an "atrocity on the poor".

On Monday, the Delhi government again blamed the central government and the railways for the "inhuman" anti-encroachment drive carried out in the absence of a rehabilitation programme for those evicted.

"It will be difficult to compensate people who have been living on the (railway) land for 20-30 years," Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain said.

"This is an inhuman act. Were any arrangements made to rehabilitate these people? It is central government's policy that till alternate arrangements are made, no demolition can take place," he said.

The minister said the baby died during the demolition.
The drive, he said, was aimed at "teaching a lesson to Kejriwal".

"We were not given any information about the demolition. We came to know about it after it began. Arrangements such as mobile toilets, sheds, food and blankets have been made by the Delhi government for the displaced."

Kejriwal said earlier that he sought an appointment with Railway Minister Prabhu.
The Trinamool Congress, which has sided with the AAP on select issues, announced its readiness to join an AAP demonstration in parliament complex against the demolition.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 27,2020

Jan 27: Bollywood Film Director Anurag Kashyap, who has been vocal about his political views on social media, slammed Union Minister Amit Shah and accused him of being 'cheap'.

"How timid our Home Minister is. Its own police, its own goons, its own army and security increases and invades unarmed protestors. Amit Shah has crossed the extent of cheapness and inferiority. History will spit on this animal," Kashyap tweeted.

The film director has taken an active part in the anti-Citizenship Act protest rallies and was against the Jawaharlal Nehru violence. He also came in support of his contemporary Deepika Padukone when the latter faced backlash for showing up at JNU in support of the students.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 7,2020

May 7: Two people, including a child, were killed and nearly 70 hospitalised after a gas leak at a chemical plant in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam in the wee hours of Thursday, officials said.

People in Gopalapatnam area, where the chemical plant, LG Polymers, is located, complained of irritation in eyes, breathlessness, nausea and rashes on their bodies.

District Collector V Vinay Chand said two people were killed due to the gas leak, while some are in a critical condition.

Close to 70 people have been admitted to the King George Hospital after for treatment, he said.

TV channels showed people lying unconscious on roads.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have rushed to the spot.

Reports said the gas leak has been contained.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy enquired about the incident and directed the Visakhapatnam district collector to ensure proper medical care for the affected people.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi has been booked for culpable homicide after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to coronavirus, police said on Wednesday.

Kandhalvi had organised the religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz last month against the social distancing protocol imposed by the Centre to curb the spread of the deadly disease.

An FIR was registered against the cleric on March 31 at Crime Branch police station on a complaint of the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin.

He was earlier booked for holding the event, police said.

“After several attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event succumbed to coronavirus, we added IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in the FIR against the leader, a police official said.

Some foreigners who attended the event have also been booked for violation of visa norms.

In an audio message, Kandhalvi had said that he was exercising self-quarantine after several hundreds who visited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamudddin Markaz tested positive for coronavirus.

The FIR registered against the Tablighi Jamaat event says that the Delhi Police contacted the authorities of Nizamuddin Markaz on March 21 and reminded them of the government order which prohibited any political or religious gathering of more than 50 people.

It says that despite repeated efforts, the event organisers failed to inform the health department or any other government agency about the huge gathering inside the Markaz and deliberately disobeyed government orders.

“The sub district magistrate of Defence Colony inspected the premises several times and found that around 1,300 people, including foreign nationals, were residing there without maintaining social distance. It was also found that there were no arrangements of hand sanitizers and face masks,” the FIR adds.

The Nizamudddin centre, attended by thousands, turned out to be a hotspot for spread of coronavirus not only in the national capital, but the entire country.

More than 25,500 Tablighi members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country after the Centre and the state governments conducted a "mega operation" to identify them.

At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin. Later, many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.